“Kind, Patient, Knowledgeable”

Here is a very generous letter of recommendation from the mother of one of my former pupils.

December 11, 2004

Hello,

I am writing to communicate my utmost respect for Winston Wolff, both as a wonderful person and as an exceptional teacher of young people. As a Resource Teacher for gifted youth in a public school district in California, I can vouch for the exceptional caliber of Winston’s moral character and keen abilities. I offer the highest, unqualified personal recommendation of Winston to all who wish to take his classes.

I have known Winston for about a year, since he tutored my 12-year old son and then his friends in the details of how to program computers at Lawrence Hall of Science, near the University of California at Berkeley, California. Through his expert, calm, logical leadership, Winston taught my son and his friends each week for three hours, for six months. Winston warmly welcomed their questions and helped them to conceptualize and understand the abstractions of the computer programming they were mastering. Each class, he thought ahead about appropriate next steps in his instruction and created special lessons to build a bridge to the new information my son and his friends were learning. Winston also took the initiative to send emails home to his students and families each week, so that his students could proudly share their work at home with their families, and could continue to reinforce their understanding of the process on their own. I have also noted that the young people he taught were able to apply what they learned with Winston in a variety of other contexts, to transfer their insights to new situations and to formulate new thinking.

As a teacher, Winston is kind, patient, knowledgeable, and treats young people with a special tenderness and respect. He encourages divergent and creative thinking, and has an ability to find what young people want to learn. His optimism about technology helping the world and opening up new adventures for humans pervades his teaching. His enthusiasm and skill as a dedicated teacher help young people’s abilities, both actual and potential, emerge and flourish. Winston sparks the abilities youth have, but clearly has his own spark in all that he does.

Both as a parent and as an educator of gifted youth, I offer my highest recommendations in support of Winston Wolff.